NUKES

My name is Alexander Mikhalchenko and this is my nuclear-themed blog. Here I share interesting and rare materials.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

If you would like to purchase high resolution photos of nuclear tests, please e-mail me and ask for a preview catalog (521 photos).

[email protected]

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Bluegill Triple Prime» nuclear test, 410 kilotons, Johnston Atoll, 23:59, October 25, 1962. Launched by a Thor missile, a W50 thermonuclear warhead was detonated at an altitude of 48 km.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

Project Salmon was a nuclear test detection research experiment (Vela Uniform). The 5.3 kt device tamped in place at the bottom of a 822-meter (2,700 feet) hole in the Tatum Salt Dome near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was detonated on October 22, 1964.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Socorro» nuclear test, 6 kilotons, 440 m burst height (balloon), Nevada test site, October 22, 1958. Successful test of the XW-54 nuclear warhead, which was only 38 cm long, 29 cm in diameter and weighed 26 kg.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

On October 19, 1962, at 22:30, an XM-33 Strypi rocket launched a 10 kt nuclear warhead that detonated at an altitude of 147 km, 65 km downrange from Johnston Island.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

RDS-3 nuclear test, 42 kilotons, air burst 380 m, Semipalatinsk test site, 18 October 1951. It was the first Soviet atomic bomb dropped from an airplane.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

On October 16, 1964, China conducted its first nuclear test. A uranium-235 fission implosion device, with a yield of 22 kilotons was detonated on a 102-m tower at the Lop Nur test site.

[Radioactive Red @radioactivered]

Recently declassified photos of a British Red Beard Mk1 nuclear weapon undergoing a fire test. ☢️

According to the AWRE report, the high explosive was completely consumed within like 12 minutes and the spherical tamper shell stayed intact even after the fire burned out.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

Disassembled view of a B-61 nuclear bomb showing some parts.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Kite» nuclear test, 3 kilotons, air burst 150 m, Australia, October 11, 1956. This was Britain's first air drop test. It tested a Blue Danube bomb dropped from an RAF Valiant B1 bomber.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

On October 11, 1961, the USSR conducted its first underground nuclear test. The device with a yield of 1 kiloton was detonated in a tunnel at a depth of 125 m in the Degelen Mountain (Kazakh SSR).

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

British nuclear test «Taranaki», 26.6 kilotons, air burst 300 m (balloon), Australia, October 9, 1957. Test of a primary for a megaton range thermonuclear device.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Mora» nuclear test, 2 kilotons, air burst 457 m, Nevada test site, September 29, 1958.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Charleston» nuclear test, 12 kilotons, air burst (balloon) 460 m, Nevada Test Site, 6:00 a.m. September 28, 1957.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«One Tree» British nuclear test, 15 kilotons, 31 m tower, Australia, 27 September 1956.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Newton» nuclear test, 12 kilotons, air burst (balloon) 457 m, Nevada test site, 5:50 a.m. September 16, 1957. LASL test of XW-31 variant, boosted primary in thermonuclear system mockup.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

If you would like to purchase high-resolution digitized photos of nuclear tests, please request a preview catalog by email. Your support means a lot to my project, thank you!

[email protected]

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Verseau» thermonuclear explosion, 332 kilotons, 433 m burst height, Mururoa Atoll, 14 September 1974. Last French atmospheric nuclear test.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

«Fizeau» nuclear test, 11 kilotons, 150 m tower, Nevada Test Site, 9:45 a.m. September 14, 1957.

[NUKES @atomicarchive]

On September 14, 1954, the USSR conducted a military exercise incorporating a nuclear test detonation. The exercise involved 45,000 Soviet troops at the Totsk range in the Orenburg region. The RDS-2 atomic bomb with a yield of 40 kilotons was detonated at an altitude of 350 m.